Your Right to Know

Attorney General Mike DeWine will put the “full weight” of his office behind an initiative to
prevent child sex abuse by hiring 15 investigators to catch pedophiles and child pornographers on
the Internet, he said yesterday.

The plan has been in the works for two months, before the recent scandal at Penn State
University drew national attention to sex crimes involving children.

DeWine called what is alleged at Penn State “unconscionable” and said he worries that people
will shrug it off as an isolated case.

“The tragic reality is that horrible crimes, unthinkable crimes, are happening against children
every single day,” the father of eight and grandfather of 17 said during a news conference at his
office. “We’re simply not going to tolerate this anymore.”

Until now, DeWine said, the job of catching those who prey on children has been left primarily
to local authorities. He plans to increase the state’s role.

A new 15-member branch of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation — an agency within the attorney
general’s office — will be dubbed the Crimes Against Children Unit.

In addition to analyzing computers and cellphones for local law-enforcement agencies, the new
investigators will scour file-sharing websites for child porn and enter chat rooms posing as
underage boys and girls.

Asked whether luring would-be predators to rendezvous with undercover agents is entrapment,
DeWine said he is on solid legal ground because the “jackasses” and “sharks” have a predisposition
to prey on children.

When the Republican took office in January, the state’s Cyber Crimes Unit had 15 employees to
help local authorities with computer-related investigations and prosecutions.

DeWine has added six, not including the 15 agents being brought on in coming months to focus
solely on investigating child sex crimes. The attorney general said he can afford to hire them
because other jobs have gone unfilled.

DeWine’s initiative was welcomed by Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer, who attended the
news conference with sheriffs and others. He said his department has two officers devoted to the
growing number of cyber crimes, and the investigations are labor-

intensive and costly because of the equipment needed.

“This is an opportunity to work together,” Morbitzer said.

Besides adding BCI agents, DeWine plans to hire another attorney in the Special Prosecutions
Unit to focus on crimes against children.

His office also will offer training to local law-enforcement officers and create a “rapid
response” team to help victims.

DeWine also will publicize photos of 109 Ohio sex offenders who he said molested children but
have not reported their whereabouts since leaving prison and are wanted on arrest warrants.

“This is just the beginning,” he said. “The safety of children in this state is our top
priority, and we’re dead serious about this.”